Oman Oil Company (OOC) and Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) are planning to tender the front-end engineering and design (feed) for the planned Duqm refinery and petrochemical complex in the first quarter of 2012.

The long-awaited project has been at the study phase since mid-2010 and has been delayed by a number of issues including a lack of gas feedstock and financing.

However, the recent announcement of a planned gas pipeline from central Oman that will supply 12 million cubic metres-a-day of gas to Duqm has solved the feedstock problem.   

“It has taken a while for this project to start making real progress, but everyone [in Oman] is confident that the feed tender will be issued soon,” says a contracting source based in Muscat. “The project is starting to feel real now and many people are talking about it as a viable job.”

If the feed tender is released within the next few months then prequalification for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts could start before the end of 2012. The EPC tenders should be awarded by mid-2013 which means commissioning could start at the new plant before the end of 2016.

International engineering contractors planning to bid includes:

• CB&I Lummus (US)
• Fluor (US)
• Foster Wheeler (US)
• Jacobs Engineering (US)
• JGC Corporation (Japan)
• KBR (US)
• Shaw Group (US)
• Technip (France)

The exact scope of the project has not been disclosed by the joint venture partners and therefore it is difficult to estimate an exact budget, although it is expected to cost several billion dollars. “If petrochemicals are being produced then it will be a complex refinery that requires a cracker being constructed,” says the source. “You are looking at $5-$10bn depending on the capacity of the different packages.”  

Earlier studies have cited a 400,000 barrels-a-day refinery plus additional petrochemical capabilities as feasible, but neither OOC or Ipic have confirmed how much capacity they have planned for the scheme.